Space Whale: Difference between revisions

* The illustrated ''[[Discworld]]'' story ''[[Discworld/The Last Hero|The Last Hero]]'' includes a sketch drawn by Leonard of Quirm of a [[Our Dragons Are Different|space-dragon]] that resembles a whale. It's not made clear if it actually exists or not (Leonard's notes indicate that the Giant Dung Beetle ''does'' exist, and the Imaginary Hull-Borer almost certainly ''doesn't'', but don't comment on the space dragon either way).

** Discworld itself is carried through space on the back of [[Turtle Power|another enormous aquatic animal]].

* An Italian satirical science-fiction novel titled ''Terra!'' featured an extended Moby-Dick parody sequence, with metal-rich asteroids and miners.

* [[Alan Dean Foster]]'s novel ''Cachalot'' (1980), part of the [[Humanx Commonwealth]] universe. In the future, Mankind had decided to save the last survivors of the cetacean species of Earth (whales, dolphins, orcas) and transplant them to a planet almost completely covered by oceans which had no native sentient species (or so they thought, because they didn't look deep enough in the oceans). The cetaceans prospered, on a world that belonged to them and on which humans and thranx were only allowed as traders and researchers. By the time of the novel, all the cetaceans are sentient to some degree, with the toothed whales more so than the baleen whales (either due to evolution or genetic Uplifting done prior to the whale diaspora or shortly afterwards, it's not entirely clear). Some species of toothed whales have even grown more intelligent than humans and live for hundreds of years since they are no longer hunted. The book ends with the revelation that these whales have developed [[Psychic Powers|psionic powers]] like telekinesis and telepathy (since they have no hands and thus a civilizations based on song, not artifacts and tools), and with the help of these powers they can levitate their bodies from the water and travel into space.

{{quote| ''[[Ear Worm|So long and thanks for all the fish, so sad that it has come to this...]]''}}

** Also, the whale survived for only a few minutes. A whale could hold their breath for that long.

* The [[Star Trek]] novel series ''The Captain's Table'' had one entry, called appropriately enough ''Where Sea Meets Sky'', with a species of large, spacefaring, and even [[Faster-Than-Light Travel|warp-capable]] to some degree, whale-shaped beings; their planetbound immature form is tentacled [[Nightmare Fuel]]. It gets worse: the dietary range of both forms put together is "[[Extreme Omnivore|almost anything]] -- people included", they're insanely hard to kill, and the space-going adults actually fire biologically-created energy beams. (Yes, they're a product of genetic engineering.)

* It didn't take long for Star Wars Expanded Universe to invent some: the first example of a space whale species was introduced in 1984 by one of the earliest Star Wars novels. Other examples followed, eventually making their ways into cartoons (see below).

* In the Seafort Saga series, by David Feintuch, the allied governments of humanity are attacked by giant space goldfish we accidentally lured into our space by FTL travel; apparently it sounded just like someone calling out to them and they were exploring to find out who was out there. {{spoiler|The protagonist kills them all at the end of the series by tricking them into the Sun}}.

* The novel ''A Deeper Sea'' by Alexander Jablokov involves a whale being turned into a spacefaring cyborg to fulfill a religious prophecy of the dolphins, with whom man has learned to communicate.

** The prequel novels [[Hand Wave]] this by simply claiming they're regular whales (with fur) from the planet Lankiveil.

* [[Larry Niven]]'s ''The Integral Trees'' has the Moby, a whalish giant creature that lives within the breatheable Smoke Ring gas torus orbiting a dead neutron star. Notable in that, by the very nature of the Smoke Ring, it's both a Space Whale ''and'' an Air Whale at the same time.

== Music ==

* The video for ''In The End'' by Linkin Park features a couple of space whales flying around.

* French metal band Gojira features the song "Flying Whales" on ''From Mars to Sirius''.

** The [[Concept Album|entire album]] deals with a quest to find the Space Whales who inhabit Sirius and get them to help revive the biologically dead Earth, long since destroyed by ecological damage dealt by humanity. Whether or not this qualifies as a [[Space Whale Aesop]] is another question.

** "Embracing the Future" by BT and "Neo (The One)" by Slyder also have orca/whale song type sounds.

* The lyrics Cormorant's song Hole in the Sea features one of these. Possibly.

* During the pre-release online hype for ''Cloverfield'', numerous [[Epileptic Trees]] abounded about what the monster would look like and where it had come from. One sketch of a multi-fluked whale with legs, which would've stood several times ''taller'' than the actual creature from the film, was widely circulated as "the ''real'' Cloverfield monster"; this spawned its own flood of debate over whether it was an unknown sea creature, a ''mutated'' sea creature, or a [[Space Whale]].

* In [[The Nineties]] a popular art-style for folders and binders was a dolphin or whale swimming through symmetrically-arranged coral and star clusters and sparkly purple nebulae? They were marginally darker and less [[Tastes Like Diabetes|diabetes-flavored]] than the Lisa Frank rainbow-and-unicorn kind.

 

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' got some.

*** And, of course, ''the Spelljammer'' itself basically is a giant space manta ray.

** Balaenas (later re-named "elsewhales"), an intelligent species of magical whale, can take people on trips in pockets of air it creates in its mouth.

* ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' has a few mentions of something called a "Void Whale". In the 5th edition rulebook, there's a picture of one. It looks like a combination of whale and an anglerfish. In SPACE.

** The Space Wolves codex has a short story about a mutated Void Whale. It was 12,000 miles long. The little picture of the whale using a small moon to lure stuff into its mouth is pretty much to scale.

* The reason the [[Horde of Alien Locusts|Zerg]] can survive in space, according to ''[[Starcraft]]'' [[Backstory]], is that they absorbed a flock of [[Space Whale|Space Whales]] that got too close to their homeworld. Also, some of their air units, such as the Guardian and Overlord, certainly fit the trope.

** That's because the Overlords ''are'' mutated versions of said Space Whales.

* In the 1994 PC game ''Commander Blood'', 'Ma' is a genetically modified, unique captive [[Space Whale]] who births [[Organic Technology]], 'dolphin'-like communication probes called Orxx.

* ''Jumping Flash'' has air whales in World 3-2. Uniquely for the game, they [[Everything Trying to Kill You|aren't trying to kill you]], and just sort of float there, wiggling their flukes, and letting you use them as platforms.